Sunday, October 27, 2013

Pumpkins and Yellowstone

We've had a fun week. We carved pumpkins for FHE on Monday. Well, one pumpkin. We tried to get it to look like Jack off The Nightmare Before Christmas. I think we did pretty well.




I also got my hair cut. I think I need to put more layers in it because when I curl and straighten it it's too BLUNT at the bottom and I think it makes me look funny. I'll see.



I've been studying like mad for my upcoming mineralogy class. For almost 100 minerals, I have to know the silicate subclass or non-silicate group, paragenesis (where it's found), what it's used for, and its chemical composition. For identifying purposes, I also have to know the hardness, streak, luster, etc. It is AWFUL and I don't believe it is useful at all so therefore my bad attitude makes it that much worse. I take that test this Thursday. Again, if I don't get a 90% or higher (AKA, If I get more than THREE wrong...) I have to retake it!

To relieve all the stress Justin and I planned a trip to Yellowstone. We did one of the loops and saw the usual: hot pots, geysers, bison...but we also went to "The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" complete with Yellowstone Falls (upper and lower). It was so pretty with the snow everywhere. We also got a glimpse of Yellowstone Lake which is HUGE! It was gorgeous with the Absaroka mountains in the background. Of course we hit Old Faithful and also my favorite spot: the prismatic hot spring. Here microbes live in the water which is what turns it blue, orange, green, and yellow! That is so awesome. I saw excellent gneiss in some roadcuts. We saw lots of bison, a fox, otters, swans, osprey, elk, and a bald eagle. The weather was perfect and it was good to get away from Rexburg for a spell.





In this area, we could hear the frost melting off the trees when the sun came around. The frost was so pretty.

These are called the "Painters Pots" because there are so many colors.
Orange and Red




The Canyon


Yellowstone Falls




Upper Falls

Prismatic Pots

Old Faithful

Microbes! and Gneiss!


When we got home we went to Sammy's for burgers and fries and a pie shake, and then we went to The Battle of the Dance show on campus. I loved it! There were so many great dance performances. One girl did a contemporary dance, and she's toured in Beijing! There was great talent but clever stories in the dances. The collegiate jazz team did a dance that featured girl life in college - it was hilarious and I loved it. IV Matics is a dance group that is always the best and they did a sweet show with a Halloween/Carnival theme.

We had a relief society activity where we painted pumpkins and made caramel apples. It was so fun! I love caramel apples.

Mary Kay is going well! I'm selling a little here a little there. I'm going to demo the men's shaving cream for the first time next week. That will be fun! Lots of guys on campus struggle shaving because it hurts so bad to do it regularly. Hopefully this product will bring them some relief! One of my friends asked me to do her hair and makeup for a date she went on. She looked great and I WISH I had taken before and after pictures! I was so flattered she asked me to do it!

As Las Vegas draws closer Justin is looking harder for work. He has help from an accounting staffing agent and we are praying like crazy that he'll get a job. Not just a job but a good job! I'm getting more nervous about teaching every day. The good news is a couple came over on Thursday and they want to take the apartment off our hands when we move, so that's a relief. Now we need to come up with costume ideas for Halloween! In other news, it's supposed to snow tomorrow....=/  

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Baby Shower in Boise

This weekend Trisha and I decided to head to Boise to attend Mitzi's baby shower. The timing was great because Gabe and Christy happened to be celebrating Gabe and Bennett's birthdays with the annual "Soups and Sweaters" gathering. At the last minute I called Keaton and asked if he wanted to tag along, so he and I drove over Friday afternoon. 

It's time that the white Mazda be returned to its rightful owner: the Mazda Protege started with Hart and Jory long ago. It was then passed to Mitzi and Scott until it was passed to Keaton and me for our highschool car, then passed to Chase for his college car, and then passed back to me as my college car. It's served Justin and me for our first year of marriage, but we know it wouldn't survive while we're in Vegas next year, so it was time for an upgrade!

That upgrade came two weeks ago with this:
2004 Grand Prix -- Chrome paint

We love it! We love having bright lights, air conditioning and heating without the "side effects," automatic transmission, and so much more! Overall I feel much safer driving in it. Now when we make long trips I won't be so nervous. Love it!

So Keaton and I drove the Mazda to Boise to return to Hart for Brynn to drive. Crazy! All day Saturday Hart, Jory, and Brynn worked a miracle on the appearance. It looks great!

Friday night when we got to Boise we went straight to Gabe's for soup, bread, and cake. Yum! Gabe had a fire in the backyard and a full house of family from the Beals to the Crandalls. Thanks Gabe for the party!

Saturday morning was Mitzi's baby shower. Christy knows of a cute coffee place downtown called "Big City Coffee." It was busy busy but the food was worth the wait! I had the Ciabatta Bread sandwich with eggs (and lots of them!), bacon, and cheese. To die for! I got Mitzi some Mary Kay product for my gift, naturally, and everyone else got her some cute baby stuff! We hit the mall and then went our separate ways. In the afternoon I did some homework and also went with Jory as Brynn practiced driving her new car. Jory made fabulous pulled pork sandwiches for us for dinner - yum!

That night Trisha,  Keaton, and I went to Mitzi's for some apple crisp with caramel and vanilla ice cream dessert. Best thing ever! It was fun to visit with Mitzi for a few hours. Next time I see her she'll have a new baby boy! Crazy.

Sunday morning first thing Jory fed us delicious breakfast casserole and Trisha, Keaton, and I drove home. We stopped at Mom and Dad's house for Sunday dinner on the way through -- delicious! Thanks again Mom for having us! It was a long day of driving, but I'm finally home! It was such a fun weekend. It is so good to be home with my husband who has now lost 4 inches off his waist and 10 pounds! Amazing. Love him!

Last bit of news: school is fine. It's going better than I thought it would so I took up another tutoring position to bring in a little more money. I'm in a teaching practicum class and I've been promoted to teaching in the Ecology classroom at the Junior High. I worded it wrong on facebook and made it sound like I got hired there...whoops. Oh well! I'm not getting paid, but I am teaching in the ecology classroom in November for my last time teaching before Las Vegas. My teacher Brother Benitez says I'm doing very well compared to my peers and he's actually had some of them come in and observe ME. Awesome. So life is good and we are doing well! Now we need to think of a really clever Halloween couple costume...we'll see what we come up with.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Field Trip and Catch Up

Well family and friends, lots has been going on! I'll try to briefly give a summary of what's going on.

This weekend I had a field trip my mineralogy class. We took six vans full of students. We combined our class with an applied math class and went to Ririe Reservoir, Swan Valley, the Teton Dam, Driggs, and Mesa Falls. It was ridiculously cold! I wore enough clothes to go snowboarding and I was still shivering. Now that it's over I look back and some things were fun, but for the most part I'm over field trips- especially in the cold! From now on I'll be the one leading field trips when I'm a teacher! So exciting.

The waterfall is undercutting the Mesa Falls tuff, slowly migrating the falls upriver


Precambrian igneous rock

Plagioclase dike interrupting gneiss

2.5 billion year old rock -- orthoclase

Teton Range -- too bad the clouds are covering their magnificence! 

Teton Dam; it was build to curate as it filled over two or three years but heavy snow caused it to fill in a matter of months. It was an earth dam which isn't a bad thing, but they used loess for material. These were the main reasons the dam failed.





lithified tuff

pelagic basalt


Justin and I got a new car off Craigslist on Thursday. It's a 2004 Grand Prix with chrome paint. It's a lot like Mom and Dad's blue Grand Prix, but it has more miles and I don't think they're the same year but...it is so nice having a car that has bright lights, automatic transmission, decent tires, etc.

Justin had his first ultimate game on Friday night and won 14-11. It was a close game and it made me happy I'm not playing this semester. It was freezing cold, and I get way too emotionally involved. I was a good cheerleader though! Justin is a really great coach.
Justin's team; he's the one holding the disc

Justin is starting a new business called "Dates to Go." He's created pre-packaged dates that people can order through facebook (for now) and we deliver. It's a really neat idea and for all the places for it to succeed, Rexburg is the place! He's hoping to get things up and running this week so people can start ordering. We're going to advertise a little...we'll see what happens! He's been doing all this on the side as well as his two jobs in Rigby.
Pie in a jar

Build a snowman date

Glow in the dark jar

Prepackaged dates!


Both of us really enjoyed conference. We watched everything on our ipad at home. We made "after Conference goals" the next Monday for FHE. I don't think there was one talk I didn't like. I really liked Elder Ballard's talk with the member missionary challenge. A girl in my ward gave a talk today about her conversion and said the missionaries didn't do any of the word -- her activity days teacher did! Sure the missionaries did the baptizing, but  ward members do the activity and reactivation work. We pray for missionary opportunities so we'll see what happens!

Other than that we've had the same things going on -- school and work. I took my second mineralogy test and I'm pretty sure I have to retake it. If you don't pass with 90% or higher you have to retake the test, and for every time you have to retake it, our teacher docks 10%. So for example, if it took me three times to get 100%, I would end up with a 70%. 

For one of my classes I've been teaching in the Jr. High. I teach a class with five 7th graders. Our teacher grades our teaching performance and either gives us a 0, 5, or 10. On my first time my teacher gave me a 10! After reviewing my teaching video with him he said I'm leading the class as far as teaching goes, so I'm very motivated by that. He said after I'm done teaching in that classroom, he'll talk to the earth science teacher in the Jr. High and see if he'll let me come in and teach his class a few times before the end of the semester! That would be awesome! I'm really happy that I'm doing so well and that I enjoy teaching. It's very encouraging.

Other than that here are some pictures to catch up a few things that have happened in the past few weeks. I must do better with staying on top of updates! 
For my SPED 360 class I had to spend half a day in a wheel chair. This was so hard on our campus since the whole thing is a hill! Going downhill was just as hard as going uphill. 

We went golfing with Trisha and Travis and Keaton one weekend. Trish and Trav took us out to dinner after. It was a lot of fun!


We went to Arco one weekend with my two sisters. This is my mom's yard with King Mountain in the background. Love it!

Strawing down the cows!

My mom driving the tractor -- impressive!